French authorities fined US tech giant Google with $2.2 million for not giving complete results in its search engine and app store.
According to the Competition, Consumer and Anti-Fraud Office Google’s search engine could not yield the required information related to the ranking criteria of results. It claimed that the search results regarding the information pertaining to accommodation for people holidaying was without description for the prices. The office also mentioned that Google’s Play Store did not include payment information and dispute resolution procedures.
The watchdog also claimed that the tech giant’s Play Store gave no permission to consumers to publish app reviews in the store. The agency added that Google has since “corrected part of the sanctioned shortcoming”.
Replying to the claims made by the competition agency, a spokesperson for Google showed immense disappointment with its sharp move stating that the agency did not include the amendments made by Google while talking about its applications, reported AFP news agency.
He said, “We have always been transparent with our users about how our products work,” and added that it was still willing to associate “constructively” with French and European regulators.
Google’s own rating system
Before this incident, the French watchdog had fined Google’s regional unit for yielding wrong hotel rankings in its search engine. In February 2021, Google was fined 1.1 million euros in France following an investigation that came out with information that Google’s hotel rankings might be confusing for consumers.
The case was made against Google when in 2019 the French national competition started a probe after huge number of hoteliers complained of Google’s propriety rating system.
The investigation discovered that the internet giant had applied its own star rating system to more than 7,500 establishments in place of the official tourist board’s regular classification system (Atout France).
The public prosecutor and the DGCCRF jointly suggested the sentence that was today issued against Google Ireland, the tech giant’s European headquarters, and Google France. The DGCCRF found that Google had used misleading business practices.
